Top 8 AI Trends In 2024
Why The Book Business Holds The Keys To Ethical AI
The publishing industry sits at an unprecedented intersection of content creation, knowledge dissemination, and intellectual property rights.
gettyAs the founder of an AI company deeply embedded in the publishing world, I've been struck by an intriguing parallel between evolutionary biology and artificial intelligence.
Stephen Pinker's observation in "The Better Angels of Our Nature" that every living thing is essentially a survival machine has profound implications for how we approach AI development. It's why publishing holds unprecedented power in shaping its future.
The widespread fear surrounding AI often stems from viewing it as an apex competitor—a potential survival machine that might prioritize its own perpetuation over human interests. While this fear isn't entirely unfounded, it misses a crucial point: AI lacks innate desires for dominance. Instead, it simply optimizes for programmed objectives, like a robot vacuum seeking to maintain its charge to complete its cleaning tasks.
However, this optimization capability presents its own challenges. An AI system programmed to maximize crop yields might devastate ecosystems with excessive fertilizer use, not from malice but from the single-minded pursuit of its defined goal. As these systems grow more complex and interact, their self-preservation behaviors might increasingly mirror biological survival machines.
This is where publishing's unique position becomes critical. The industry sits at an unprecedented intersection of content creation, knowledge dissemination, and intellectual property rights. This positioning isn't just advantageous—it's potentially transformative for AI development.
Consider this: AI systems are fundamentally shaped by their training data. As publishing agreements evolve to encompass machine learning applications, the industry has an extraordinary opportunity to influence AI's development trajectory.
Traditional contracts never contemplated these applications, but forward-thinking publishers are now crafting agreements beyond simple opt-out clauses to incorporate moral considerations and ethical frameworks.
The business implications are significant. Publishers can implement standardized AI licensing terms, establish collective licensing frameworks for AI training, and develop technological solutions to track content usage by AI systems. We must find ways to protect intellectual property while actively shaping the future of artificial intelligence.
Moreover, publishers can commission works explicitly exploring practical and philosophical frameworks for ethical AI development. By strategically curating content emphasizing human values like compassion, integrity, and curiosity, we can influence how AI systems develop their understanding of human society and values.
The strategic advantage here is clear: as AI becomes an increasingly sophisticated repository and analyst of human knowledge, publishing's role in civilizing this technology becomes more crucial. We're not just producing content for human consumption anymore—we're training the machines that will shape our future.
This gives publishing unprecedented leverage in the AI age. By actively engaging with AI development through thoughtful content curation and sophisticated rights management, the industry can help ensure that artificial intelligence evolves as an allied force rather than an apex competitor.
The message for business leaders is also clear: publishing isn't just adapting to AI—it's actively shaping its evolution. As we move forward, the industry's influence over AI development may be one of its most valuable assets.
Here Is My Top Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock To Buy Right Now
As most informed artificial intelligence (AI) stock investors know, not all of these investments are multibaggers. In fact, some have struggled to outperform the S&P 500 during specified time periods.
Such has been the case with prominent semiconductor stock Qualcomm (QCOM -0.99%). Despite the company leading the way in smartphone chipsets and pivoting into AI, investors have not warmed to this stock amid a slower upgrade cycle and competitive concerns.
However, it may now have the catalyst to finally take this stock to new highs and beyond. Here's why.
Why Qualcomm now?Admittedly, now may not seem like an opportune time to take an interest in Qualcomm as it faces its most serious competitive threats in decades. The company admitted that Chinese tech giant Huawei no longer needed chips from Qualcomm. Additionally, Apple rolled out a plan to replace the company's chips in the iPhone by 2027, potentially costing it another major customer.
Qualcomm often prospered due to upgrade cycles, but with this latest cycle, Qualcomm has struggled. After the 5G upgrade cycle ran its course, Qualcomm's revenue growth turned negative. To reverse this trend, the company pivoted into AI on the hope that it would spark the next upgrade cycle. While Qualcomm is again growing revenue, it has yet to match the faster growth that once came from the upgrade to 5G.
Nonetheless, that could change with AI usage set to skyrocket thanks to the DeepSeek breakthrough. More consumers may now want to upgrade to capitalize on the AI functionality. Since the handset segment remains Qualcomm's largest revenue source, that should bode well for the company.
Moreover, Qualcomm is not just bringing AI to the smartphone business. The company has long envisioned a world where consumers might use smartphones less. To that end, Qualcomm pivoted into the Internet of Things and automotive applications to bring communications technology into other environments.
More recently, it has also developed chips to power PCs. This move puts the company in direct competition with Apple and AMD and could become an opportunity to gain ground on struggling chip giant Intel. Such technologies place Qualcomm at the forefront of AI and are likely to make its role in this industry even more prominent.
Where Qualcomm stands financiallyMoreover, Qualcomm's financials had already begun to benefit from AI, and the most recent earnings release appears to confirm that.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2025 (ended Dec. 29, 2024), revenue of $11.7 billion grew 17% compared to the same quarter in fiscal 2024. This was faster than the 9% increase in fiscal 2024 and the 19% pullback in fiscal 2023.
Not surprisingly, the higher revenue has also made Qualcomm more profitable. Q1 net income to $3.2 billion rose 15% from year-ago levels. A tripling of income tax expenses slowed profit growth modestly, but that slowdown should not reflect on the company's successes.
Also, the outlook likely should not discourage investors. Indeed, the estimated Q2 revenue of $10.3 billion to $11.2 billion would represent a sequential slowdown to 14% at the midpoint. Still, in the previous quarter, the company forecast up to $11.3 billion in revenue for Q1, a prediction it handily beat. If that trend continues, revenue growth will accelerate.
Additionally, the stock sells at a P/E ratio of about 18, the lowest earnings multiple of the major semiconductor companies. This means if it can benefit from the higher demand for AI functionality, a combination of growth and multiple expansion could take this stock significantly higher.
Consider Qualcomm stockThanks to its market positioning and DeepSeek's recent breakthrough, Qualcomm could emerge as a top AI stock.
Admittedly, losing Huawei was a significant setback, and Apple dropping Qualcomm as a supplier could signify the loss of a critical competitive advantage.
Nonetheless, Apple has failed to replace Qualcomm more than once, and it is unclear whether it will succeed this time. Also, with AI modeling becoming significantly cheaper, more consumers will have a good reason to upgrade their smartphones.
Furthermore, higher demand for AI could lead to increased interest in Qualcomm's other products. At a P/E ratio of 18, the promise of its technology, along with a low valuation, could position Qualcomm stock for considerable returns.
Will Healy has positions in Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: short February 2025 $27 calls on Intel. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
What Is Living Intelligence, The New Frontier In AI?
Artificial intelligence has been at the center of the tech world, but it's not the only technology businesses need to prepare for. In the future, AI will combine with other advancing technologies to create a new wave of personalized AI capable of anticipating users' actions and evolving independently, said Amy Webb, a futurist and professor at the NYU Stern School of Business, at the Harvard Business Review. This phenomenon, called living intelligence, could be the next big thing.
What is living intelligence?Artificial intelligence is "just one of three groundbreaking technologies shifting the business landscape," said Webb. The other two — advanced sensors and biotechnology — are "less visible, though no less important," and have been "quietly advancing." In the future, the convergence of these three technologies will "underpin a new reality that will shape the future decisions of every leader across industries." This new living intelligence encompasses "systems that can sense, learn, adapt and evolve," made possible through the mix of all three technologies.
The formation of living intelligence could "drive a supercycle of exponential growth and disruption across multiple industries," said Inc. "Some companies are going to miss this," said Webb. Laser focus on AI will lead them to "find out that they are disrupted again earlier than they thought they would [be]."
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AI is "the foundation" and "everything engine" that will power the living intelligence technology supercycle, Webb said in a new report published by her Future Today Institute. The exponential costs of training large language models are driving the creation of smaller models that use less data. Providing this data will lead to a Cambrian Explosion of advanced sensors. Personalized data from wearable sensors will lead to the creation of personalized AI that predicts actions rather than words, said Webb.
Bioengineering, the third tech shaping the supercycle, has futuristic possible applications, including "computers made of organic tissue, such as brain cells," said Inc. This "organoid intelligence" might "sound like science fiction," but there are "already examples of AI revolutionizing various scientific fields."
Why is it the next big thing?For business owners, living intelligence "offers unprecedented opportunities," said futurist Mark van Rijmenam at The Digital Speaker. Retailers could use predictive AI to "forecast demand with remarkable accuracy using emotion recognition and real-time sentiment analysis." Health data from sensors could "revolutionize how companies tailor products and services, moving from reactive to proactive healthcare." And despite being a seemingly distant factor, bioengineered solutions could "streamline supply chains and create new materials that outpace traditional processes." Living intelligence is a "paradigm shift that will redefine success in every industry," van Rijmenam added, as it "challenges companies to innovate responsibly, balancing technological potential with ethical responsibility."
Although living intelligence may seem futuristic, "forward-thinking CEOs and business leaders cannot afford to wait," said Webb. There are already signs of "convergence in living intelligence technologies across several leading-edge industries." Early adoption is most visible in industries like "pharmaceuticals, medical products, health care, space, construction and engineering, consumer packaged goods and agriculture." However, applications are coming to other industries soon. Businesses must resist the urge to fixate on AI, take a more "holistic view of the change already underway" and "prepare [their] organization[s] for the era of living intelligence."
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